14 December 2011

Care to look over Isaac Newton's shoulder ?

It includes many notes from his studies and, increasingly, his own
explorations into mathematics, physics and metaphysics. It was judged
'Not fit to be printed' by Newton's executor and was presented to the
Library by the fifth Earl of Portsmouth in 1872.

I clicked through about 50 of several hundred pages, and then selected samples of his notes in Greek, Latin and English to embed above. I would be interested if anyone can tell me what he is diagramming on the page below [see Addendum]:

One of the marvelous things about the cyberworld we live in is that you can get up in the morning, sit down at your desk, and casually browse through Isaac Newton's personal notebook.

Addendum: Hat tips to islenskr, Kniffler, and Talon Sensei for deciphering the diagram. Here are their explanations:

The
bottom split is Corporia vs Incorporia, leading to Corpus (material)
and Spiritus (ethereal). I can't make out all the words on the second
split, but the right hand side leads to Orbes Celestes. The left is
"corrupted" something, i.e. terrestrial matter.

The next split is
life from non-life, the right hand branches leads out to mineralia and
simplex(?). Then plants split off, as insensitive life.

Then the
top is animals, both Rational, (i.e. humans, male and female), and
Irrational/Brute (everything else). The non-human animals are split into
Aquatic, Volatile (flying), Reptilia, and Bestia.

...................................................

It is a diagram that classifies the universe into categories. Reading
from the root upwards, you have Substance -> Corporeal -> Body or
Non-Corporeal -> Spirit, then following the Corporeal line, the next
branch is animate or inanimate. Inanimate terminates in Mineralia
(minerals) and Elementum (elements). The animate branch continues to
the next split of sensitive and insensitive. The insensitive ends in
plants. The sensitive branch continues through animal and splits at
rational and irrational. The irrational branch goes through beasts
(brutu) and ends in beasts, fish and two others. The rational branch
goes through Man (homo) and splits into male (masculine) and female
(feminine).

I suppose this would fall in the category of the "metaphysics" part of his notebook.

7 comments:

The last page looks like a mapping of human existence, starting with the body and ending with rationality and irrationality. I have not studied enough, but it looks like philosophy. I'm interested to see what others have to say on this!

The bottom split is Corporia vs Incorporia, leading to Corpus (material) and Spiritus (ethereal). I can't make out all the words on the second split, but the right hand side leads to Orbes Celestes. The left is "corrupted" something, i.e. terrestrial matter.

The next split is life from non-life, the right hand branches leads out to mineralia and simplex(?). Then plants split off, as insensitive life.

Then the top is animals, both Rational, (i.e. humans, male and female), and Irrational/Brute (everything else). The non-human animals are split into Aquatic, Volatile (flying), Reptilia, and Bestia.

I don't know enough about the history of the concept to say much without getting something horribly wrong, but I find it interesting that it's presented as a branching tree, reminiscent of a nested-set paradigm, rather than a straight chain. I don't know how common that was at the time. 1660s seems to me to be pretty early for such an interpretation.

islenskr is correct. It is a diagram that classifies the universe into categories. Reading from the root upwards, you have Substance -> Corporeal -> Body or Non-Corporeal -> Spirit, then following the Corporeal line, the next branch is animate or inanimate. Inanimate terminates in Mineralia (minerals) and Elementum (elements). The animate branch continues to the next split of sensitive and insensitive. The insensitive ends in plants. The sensitive branch continues through animal and splits at rational and irrational. The irrational branch goes through beasts (brutu) and ends in beasts, fish and two others. The rational branch goes through Man (homo) and splits into male (masculine) and female (feminine).

Here's a rough transcription of the page that precedes the final photograph in your set:

Third day in a row I was hit on the head by fruit during my postprandial nap beneath the apple tree.This time, I spied a strangely-attired prankster up the tree. Introduced himself as a doctor, but wouldn't say what of. He dared to ask if I'd had any interesting ideas lately. Be off, I said, and gave chase.He fled to a small blue edifice. It was bigger on the inside. Overleaf is a map of the small portion I explored before he politely ejected me from the premises. Couldn't find the place later.

well...I had a salad today. His writings make me feel very obsolete which I find bitterly amusing considering that the pages are over 100 years old and what "obsolete" implies as far as time is concerned.

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